US alarmed over Pakistan nukes
Pastor Dale Morgan
US alarmed over Pakistan nukes*
by Daphne Benoitin Washington
November 09, 2007 07:38am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON is voicing increasing alarm that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal
could fall into the hands of Islamic militants, as the political crisis
there drags on.
Islamabad, Washington's key ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and
Taliban militants, is believed to have about 50 nuclear-armed weapons or
warheads, an arsenal it began assembling after successfully carrying out
its first nuclear tests in May 1998.
There is no evidence that any of the weapons, said to be spread out in
various locations around the country, currently are at risk.
But the volatile political climate following a move last week by
President Pervez Musharraf to call a state of emergency has led anxious
US officials to be more vigilant.
"I have learned that we don't have as a strong handle on it as I thought
we do,'' said US Democratic Representative Ellen Tauscher, after being
briefed in Congress this week on the state of the Pakistan nuclear program.
"We need a lot more visibility on what's going on in Pakistan,'' he said.
"They have nuclear weapons and it is such a volatile part of the world.''
Musharraf on Thursday sought to ease allies' worries, announcing he will
hold elections by February 15 and also pledging to give up his military
uniform before beginning his second term as president.
Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, made the announcement to
stem the barrage of international and domestic condemnation about his
decision to declare a state of emergency and suspend a planned
parliamentary vote.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International
Security in Washington, said in remarks made to the Los Angeles Times
that the threat is real, especially if rogue scientists take advantage
of the recent political turmoil to try to reap personal profit by
selling nuclear secrets.
"If there is (further) instability, Musharraf is going to have less
ability to exercise tight control. Pakistan tends to leak,'' he said.
"It has leaked vital nuclear weapons information. It's the nature of the
system,'' Albright said.
Pakistan, the world's only known nuclear-armed Muslim country, is
suspected of selling atomic secrets on a global black market headed by
its disgraced chief nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Khan confessed in 2004 to passing atomic secrets to Iran, Libya and
North Korea. He was pardoned by Musharraf but remains under virtual
house arrest in Islamabad.
An even more worrisome scenario, although officials conceded somewhat
less likely, would be if Al-Qaeda or another Islamic extremist network
were to launch an attack on one of Pakistan's nuclear sites.
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto said in an interview
Wednesday with the German daily Bild that she too was worried about what
would happen if extremists managed to win hold of the country's nuclear
arsenal.
US officials told the LA Times that the Central Intelligence Agency and
other US spy agencies have ramped up their surveillance of Pakistan's
nuclear installations, in hopes of preventing such a doomsday scenario.
Lieutenant General Carter Ham, Director of Operations with the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday that the US military would keep close
watch on the weapons.
"We will watch that very closely,'' he said, saying that the situation
was inherently perilous.
"Any time there is a regime that has nuclear weapons and that
experiences a situation like in Pakistan, of course there is a primary
concern.''